Security Forces Foil Second Suicide Bombing Within 24 Hours; Jihad Man Killed in Jericho

Security forces yesterday foiled a second suicide bombing attempt in 24 hours.

In the Ramallah region, the forces arrested a would-be suicide bomber, a member of Fatah's Tanzim military wing in Nablus, and two facilitators.

Soldiers from the undercover Duvdevan unit arrested the terrorist in the town of Al-Bireh, while the two facilitators were arrested in the adjacent Al-Amari refugee camp. All three are residents of the Nablus region. They were en route to Jerusalem to carry out a suicide bombing somewhere in the center of the country.

The explosives belt to be used in the bombing has not been located, so it remains unclear how imminent the alert was.

On Tuesday the Shin Bet security service and the police foiled an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing at the last minute. A resident of the Jenin area was arrested after a prolonged chase along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. He had with him an explosive device weighing between five and seven kilograms. That bombing was supposed to be carried out in the metropolitan Tel Aviv area.

In other developments, an unarmed Islamic Jihad operative was killed in Jericho yesterday by Israel Defense Forces fire.

A detachment from the Nahal Haredi battalion entered the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp in northern Jericho in a predawn search for three wanted men. One refused to surrender, and he was killed when troops searched his house.

The IDF said that based on a preliminary investigation, the soldiers acted appropriately in shooting the wanted man, because they could not have taken the risk of assuming he was unarmed given the short distance between them.

This was the first time the IDF has operated in Jericho since the the raid on the Palestinian prison there nine days ago.

In protest, dozens of young Palestinians demonstrated across from an IDF checkpoint at the southern exit from Jericho, threw stones and burned tires.